Temperature can be crucial to integrated circuit (IC) performance, especially an IC having high performance requirements, such as a microprocessor. During operation, an IC's temperature can be raised by the IC's operation, especially in the case of high performance IC that requires a large amount of power. Knowing a temperature of an IC can allow actions to be taken to ensure optimum IC performance. For example, if an IC were to begin operating above an optimum temperature range, a cooling fan could be activated to lower the IC temperature to the optimum temperature range.
In one technique to measure a temperature of an IC, an external thermometer can be used. The external thermometer can be attached to an outer package of the IC to measure the temperature of the IC package. The temperature measurement can be transmitted to a controller which can subsequently take action to ensure optimum IC performance. However, use of the external thermometer can add size and complexity, such as un-integrated components and wires, and thus increase required footprint and cost of an IC.